So, over the next few years, it is planned to more than double the capacity of Dublin's commuter rail network. Pretty much all of the commuter rail network meets at Connolly station (closest thing Dublin has to a central station; for historical reasons it kind of has two barely-connected ones), which has only three through platforms and is already overloaded at peak times. Worryingly, no-one has even started talking about upgrading Connolly yet. The commuter rail network upgrade is split into four largely concurrent stages, and none of them _on their own_ are likely to break anything, but when they're all done it seems completely impossible that Connolly could cope.

There are worse things than expensively and slowly upgrading a station. Such as not doing that even though it will obviously be needed by, at latest, 2028 or so.

(I _think_ maybe Irish Rail's rationale is that people on the western and south-western commuter lines will transfer to Metrolink a few stations before Connolly, but see above; Metrolink stubbornly persists in not existing.)

i’ve observed with trepidation how terribly ireland has been run in the last 5 years or so. that’s when i’ve been on the ground. with that experience it’s easy to understand why the country is the way it is and will remain so for the foreseeable future. in private conversations, i’ve lamented with rigorous arguments based on both the history of the island, their hatred for the english, the number one priority of their struggle for independence (ie for the expulsion of the english and not a maturity into statehood), etc.

ireland, like all independent african states, doesn’t know what statehood is, its people (aka elite) not practiced in statecraft. but its the configuration of the world that they also get a god-given right to atrociously run and mismanage some god-given resources. it’s a terrible thing to experience from within. a nightmare!